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1910. Like the first Tour de France, the first Giro was a wild success. For the second edition the ambitious organizers expanded their event from eight to ten stages and increased the overall length by more than 500 kilometers to 2,987. The average stage length at 299 kilometers was only slightly shorter than 1909’s, though the first stage—from Milan to Udine in the far northeastern corner of Italy—was still a cruel 388 kilometers long.

A change was made to the scoring. As usual, the stage winner would earn one point, second place two points, up to the fiftieth-place finisher who would get fifty. All riders coming in fifty-first and after would now get fifty-one points. Given the chaos of some of the finishes, this was a prudent and fair change. Highlighting the importance of the Giro to La Gazzetta’s fortunes, Emilio Colombo began personally following the race, turning in a report after each stage. In 1909 La Gazzetta’s owners had hired Colombo to become their editor. He remained in that position until 1936, when he would resign in a bitter row with writer Bruno Roghi, who then became the paper’s editor.

Painful would be the word to describe how Galetti found his narrow loss the previous year. He methodically prepared for the new edition and when the Giro started in Milan on May 18, he was in superb condition. Galetti was from the Milan suburb of Corsico. Because of his Milanese origins and his light, quick nimble way of riding he was given the nickname ilScoiattolo dei Navigli, meaning the “squirrel of the canals”, referring to the canals that criss-crossed Milan. Like today’s Italian sportswriters, those of the era loved to give athletes nicknames, personalizing the competitors and making them important and understandable to the reader.

An undated photo of Carlo Galetti

Among the 101 riders who lined up to start the 1910 Giro was Petit-Breton, ready to give it another try. He was joined by another superb Tour rider, Jean-Baptiste Dortignacq, second in the 1904 Tour, third in 1905 and winner of several Tour stages. The peloton included the cream of Italian racing, among them Ganna, Rossignoli, Eberardo Pavesi and Ezio Corlaita. The 1910 Giro peloton also had its first Germans, Arno Ritter and Karl Dittenbrandt, neither of whom finished.

Galetti was second to Ernesto Azzini at the first stage’s finish in Udine, but for Ganna the stage was a disaster. With the points system, his 21st place after getting a flat tire put the Giro out of reach the first day.

Dortignacq broke away with Galetti to win the second stage into Bologna while Petit-Breton was third. Not only was this the first Giro stage won by a foreigner, but the General Classification podium now had two Frenchmen. Galetti was the leader with another Frenchman, Constant Ménager, sitting in second place and Petit-Breton third.

This French success generated an immediate reaction by the Italians. The foreign racers were attacked by the disappointed and angry tifosi at the finish in Bologna. Within the peloton, the Italians riders decided to unite against their French rivals.

The three best Italian riders, Galetti, Ganna and Pavesi, all riding for Atala, were able to escape and roll across the line in that order in Teramo at the end of the third stage. Petit-Breton, the first of the rest, came in 22 minutes later. Galetti’s grip on the lead was firm. After three stages he had only five points while Petit-Breton was second with fifteen. Dortignacq was ninth with 32 points. The Atala riders, dubbed the “Three Musketeers” by the press, had, with the help of their compatriots, made life dreadfully hard for the French.

Galetti leads at the start of a stage.

Two days later, stage four took the riders from Teramo, near the Adriatic coast, over the Apennines to Naples. At this point the peloton was down to just 47 riders, which did not include Petit-Breton, who abandoned. Pierino Albini won the stage with Frenchmen Maurice Brocco and Dortignacq right behind him.
Before the start of the fifth stage, Dortignacq became ill and abandoned. He was so sick that the police, suspecting foul play, launched an investigation. I have some English-language accounts of Dortignacq’s trouble, all probably originating from the same source, that say that as a result of this investigation twenty riders were disqualified, but I can find no mention of this mass punishment in Italian-language accounts of the 1910 Giro. All sources agree there were 47 starters at the beginning of stage four and only 23 classified finishers. I believe that the attrition was a result of the extreme difficulty of the 319-kilometer trans-Apennine stage rather than police action.

Although the Three Musketeers had, along with the other Italian riders, united against foreign riders, they fought each other tooth and nail. In fact, from the fifth stage, which Pavesi won, the race was the Musketeers’ personal property. Ganna took the sixth and seventh stages, Galetti the eighth and Pavesi the ninth. At this point Galetti had a 21-point lead over Pavesi. Only a catastrophe could prevent his winning this second Giro.

That catastrophe almost happened in the final leg, from Turin to Milan. Partway though the stage Galetti crashed into a hay wagon. Ganna won the stage while a torn and bloody Galetti still managed to finish fifth. Galetti had won the second running of the Giro d’Italia by a commanding margin. The 1910 Giro was hard-fought: of the 101 starters who left Milan, only 21 made it back. Typical of the times, there are contradictory numbers from La Gazzetta for the official classification and there may have been only 20 official finishers.

There were several great Italian champions who made their mark on the Giro but could get no traction in the Tour de France, just as several Tour victors had nothing to show for their Giro attempts. The races are profoundly different. Galetti was probably the first of the good Italian racers who found no success in France. He entered the Tour three times (1907, ’08, and ’09) and abandoned each time, yet the rest of his career was stunning.

The timing of the two great races has an enormous effect on their outcomes. Whenever I ask professional riders about the difference between the Tour and the Giro they always cite the weather. The Tour’s July running brings summer’s baking heat, making it an ordeal for riders who can’t take it. The Giro’s spring timing means severe and unpredictable weather can determine the race’s outcome, especially in the high mountains.

The period before the First World War is often referred to by cycling historians as the heroic or pioneer era and Galetti is considered by many to be the finest of the Italian pioneer racers. He had been a typographer working in Milan in 1901 when one of the cycling Azzini brothers (Ernesto Azzini won the first stage of the 1910 Giro) gave Galetti a bike. His natural talent soon proved itself. He achieved high placings in 1902 and by 1904 was winning races alongside teammates Ganna and Pavesi. He was described by journalists of the time as a calculating rider, even cunning, always aware of his surroundings.

Galetti was also a generous competitor, well liked though he did have a terrible falling out with Gerbi in 1912. By then Gerbi had his own bicycle factory but Galetti chose instead to ride for Atala. Galetti proposed a wager (thought up by Pavesi) to settle things between the two, an individual time trial over the 300-kilometer Tour of Lombardy route. It took over 25 hours in miserable weather to complete the hilly route with Galetti beating Gerbi by almost five minutes.